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Why Everyone- Even The Guilty- Deserves To Be Defended

I had an interesting discussion today with a colleague of mine who practices personal injury law. Now this fella is a great attorney, and I have a lot of respect for his approach and his ethics. However, as seems to always be the case when we discuss law issues (I know -- shallow group, we lawyers), he is dumbfounded on how my firm can practice criminal law. More precisely, I was explaining a recent "win" we had on a sexual assault case. This made him angry. After all, didn't we just get a rapist to go free? That's right folks -- we won a complete dismissal of all charges on a class "A" felony count for first degree sexual assault (for those of you not privy to legal jargon, a class "A" is the worse type -- life in prison or the death penalty).

It would be easy to say we do this for the money -- for surely, defense of serious criminal matters is not a cheap proposition. It would be easier to say we do it because, "every person deserves his/her day in court -- and someone has to stand by them."